Promote Your Music Without Spending A Dime

Table Of Contents

What you need before promoting your music
social media done right
Collaborating with other artist
Use micro influencers
Strategic commenting
Music communities
Repost exchange
Reddit
Open mics and live performances
Do you need money to promote your music?
Can you grow a fan base for free?
How do you monetize a fan base for free?
Conclusion

Do you want to get your music heard but don’t have money to invest?

Maybe you have money but don’t want to waste it by doing the wrong thing.

Most artists spend money for years before getting anything in return.

These free ways can help you avoid that and build a fan base that brings money in.

independent artist wallet with money in it

The free ways you can use to promote your music are:

Social media done right
Collaborating with other artists
Using micro influencers
Strategic commenting on twitter
Music Communities
repost exchange
reddit
Open mics and live performances

What you need before promoting your music

I know you’re ready to stop releasing songs that no one listens to. You might feel like running and using these free ways instantly.

But you need to make sure you’re ready. Before trying any of these strategies you need good music.

Not good to you and your mom but good enough to compete with the 100s of thousands songs released everyday.

To test if your music is good enough just ask people. Lots of people.

Put your song on around people and don’t say it’s your song.

Do they react like this

Or like this

guy taking off headphones because music is bad

If you get the first reaction then you’re good to go.

Ask as many people as you can before doing any promotion.

The best way to waste time is promoting bad music.

You might be thinking “but labels release trash songs that get billions of streams”

Yeah because they have millions to force people into liking mediocre music.

You don’t have millions.

You’re actually reading an article on how to do it for free lol.

you can't be broke if you don't check your bank account

social media done right

It’s no secret that social media is used for music promotion. It can take you from 0 fans to potentially millions.

The effectiveness of social media for music promotion can’t be denied but is difficult to execute.

Most artists think social media is supposed to make their music popular automatically. It doesn’t work like that.

You see the accounts of pretty women, funny videos, or motivational videos that blow up.

It might seem like there’s nothing to social media other than posting whatever. Trust when I say there is a lot more than what you see on the surface.

Any one who is successful on social media understands some key principles.

music artist looking at 0 likes on social media

These are:

Understanding the platform
Observing what’s working and trends
Practice, practice, practice
Consistency
Make the old look new

Understanding the platform

Every social media platform is like a different language. You wouldn’t learn Spanish before going to France.

Yet artists try to promote their music on IG the same way they do on twitter.

Whatever social media platform you use has a format for content that’s unique.

To figure this out look at the most watched and liked content on that platform.

Take note of how the content is edited, looks, sounds used, and anything else you notice.

Research the best practices for your platform of choice.

Independent artist nic d explains how he puts the content specific to the platform above everything else. He gets millions of streams from free organic social media.

How To Use Social Media To Promote Your Music

One thing you can do on every platform is comment. Commenting is how you will build on social media initially.

Remember to comment daily and as much as you can.

This will slowly build your engagement on your posts.

Observing what’s working and trends

Using social media with a purpose will improve your marketing quickly. Instead of watching random content search for music promotion content.

Find the content that gets the most engagement, likes, and views. Study it to learn why people like it.

The purpose of this is not to copy but to understand what good content looks like.

This can let you know if you’re on the right track with what you’re creating. Remember that most of what’s new and viral is a variation of what someone has done before.

Practice, practice, practice

Promote Your Music Without Spending A Dime 9

Getting good at social media is all a numbers game. The more content you make the more you learn from your mistakes.

The more you learn the better your Content gets.

Make a lot and don’t get discouraged at the beginning. Trust that over time you will get better.

I followed this and now get millions of impressions on twitter.

Urproducer twitter analytics showing 17.2 million impression

Consistency

Practice and Consistency are connected. If you are posting daily you will kill 2 birds with one stone.

Don’t only post when you have new music!

You should be posting daily no matter what. Committing to that will guarantee you build the habit of creating content.

Post to be consistent for the first month and don’t worry about likes. Adjust things after that to improve engagement.

Make the old look new

Once you’ve been consistent for over a month you will see what is working.

You want to study these pieces and learn what made them successful. You then want to implement the good qualities in some of your new content.

You also want to repost the best content after 6 months.

People have their lives to worry about and will not remember what you posted 6 months ago.

Collaborating with other artist

independent artist collaborating in the studio.

Doing songs with other artists and producers can be huge for your music.

When you collaborate you get exposure to the fans and followers of who you collaborate with. The best part is it can cost you $0.

New independent artists think they need to find large independent artists to collaborate with.

That’s not true. You actually want to focus on the quality of the artist’s music and their fans. Not the number of followers, streams, or sales.

There are artists with 1k to 5k followers that have fans that buy their merch and support them.

To find these artists search on social media for artists in your genre.

When you find someone who has music you like, look for these signs:

Do they share images from fans that have bought their music
Are the comments on their music unique and genuine
Do they have videos performing at shows?

You might find artists that have one of these traits or all three.

Don’t rule out artists who have good music but don’t have these qualities. These are guides and not rules.

If you find an artist that is really talented you should still try to collaborate with them.

Even if they have little to no fan base now that can change because quality music will eventually find listeners.

You want to know and connect with as many good artists as possible.

Try to build a network of artists that make good music and support each other.

Use micro influencers

Uh Oh pic.twitter.com/7zNMKquHXL
— AMP KAI (@KaiCenat) July 7, 2024

Similar to collaborating with other artists. Using influencers allows you to be seen by another person’s audience.

You might think of big names when you hear the word influencer like Kai cenet or the rock.

You won’t be looking for that size of influencer. You will search for accounts that have less than 10k followers.

These are micro influencers and are more likely to feature your music for free.

Search for any accounts that review music, use music in their videos, or dance to music.

These could be podcasts, youtubers, ig accounts, etc.

When you find these accounts contact them and ask if they need music for their content.

You will have to contact a lot to get one that is willing to do it for free. The better your music, the more that will say yes.

Similar to collaborating you want to have a network of as many of these small accounts as you can get.

Traditional pr and blogs have been mostly replaced by influencers.

Think of this network like your major news outlets that will talk about your music when it is released.

Strategic commenting

Commenting with a purpose can get your music a lot of attention.

This promotion strategy is used on twitter. It is time consuming and requires good timing.

To make this work you will go on to twitter and find tweets that are from big accounts.

This will also work on any tweet from any account that is getting a lot of engagement. Once you find one of these tweets you will comment with a video of your song.

The key to this working is finding tweets that have people interested in your style of music.

You will have to do this a lot and consistently in order to see any results but it does work.

Music communities

There are places on social media and forums where music artists hangout. These are music communities.

By being active in these communities you can find other artists to collaborate with and talk to.

These are dope for music promotion because a lot of these communities will support good music

Promote Your Music Without Spending A Dime 15

Your first fans probably will be other music creators and you will all support each other.

The support from these people can help spark enough support to where regular people give your music a chance.

Good music communities can be found on twitter Communities, Reddit forums, and Facebook groups.

To get the most out of these groups follow these guidelines:

Observe first before doing anything
Focus on providing genuine support to music you like and it will come back to you
Talk to other artists as real people to form real connections.
Don’t only be active when you have music to release
Check in on these communities daily even if it’s for 5 minutes

Communities are another great place to build your network of collaborators and influencers.

If you are consistent and provide value, music communities will do wonders for your music.

After trying online communities give some communities in your area a try.

Most states have music associations you can sign up for and connect with all the artist in your state.

This video goes into more detail on the importance of being active in communities.

Repost exchange

Promoting your music on SoundCloud is not easy. Repost exchange changes that.

Repost exchange is a website that allows SoundCloud artists to repost music to earn credits.

These credits that are earned can then be used by artists to get their music reposted. This exchange allows you to get exposure to new audiences.

The best part is it is completely free!

You can sign up today and Repost songs to start earning credits for free.

Some of the accounts on Repost Exchange have a lot of followers. If done right, some of these accounts could bring you your next super fan.

Here’s a video that shows you how to use it.

Reddit has a community for anything. The music communities on reddit are a great place to promote.

You don’t want to jump on reddit and start promoting without knowing how it’s done.

Reddit, unlike social media, has controlled guidelines determined by each community.

This means you can’t start promoting your music without following the guidelines of the subreddit you’re participating in.

You also don’t want to be taking more than you’re giving.

Promote Your Music Without Spending A Dime 17

Reddit is about genuine interaction and the users can tell instantly if you are a selfish self promoter.

When promoting your music on reddit, focus on interacting a lot more than posting.

This will build your connections and allow people to engage when you actually post something.

Do this consistently and you could find die hard support from reddit.

Open mics and live performances

With the internet being where we see most artist blow up we sometimes forget about real life.

There is no better way to build a connection with a fan than in person.

Independent artist performing at a open mic

Independent artist that perform are more likely to find super fans and sell merch.

You can start performing and you don’t need a social media following to do so.

To start performing live you need to search for open mics, talent shows, bars, and clubs.

If you Google these terms and the city you live in you will find lots of venues you can reach out to.

Once you find them, contact them and ask if they will allow you to perform.

This is a grind and a numbers game but the reward is crazy.

You will become a better artist and grow your fan base the more performances you do.

There are also music associations in different states. Look up your state and get registered with them.

These groups usually have live performance events and can connect you with the live performance venues in your state.

The last way to secure performances is through music showcases or events.

There are tons of showcases and events. Google what is near you and find out when they’re happening.

Do you need money to promote your music?

Promote Your Music Without Spending A Dime 20

It depends on your goal. If you want to live off your music and are not interested in fame it’s possible with no money.

If you want to be the biggest artist on earth it will take a lot of money.

Remember that money doesn’t guarantee success. It can only make things move faster.

Where you eventually get to is determined by your music quality and not the amount of money you invest.

There are new artists who are big online and on TV but struggle to sell 50k copies of an album.

Focus on making an amazing product and if you have money or not you will have fans that support you.

Can you grow a fan base for free?

Yes, If you discipline yourself to do these free strategies above consistently.

The key with free is patience.

It is slow but will get you where you need to be.

Some artists will use free methods until they start bringing money in. This is smart because you will be sure you are investing in something that makes money.

Have fun making music and doing these strategies.

Don’t stress yourself out on immediate results and know that you’re in this for years.

Also don’t forget that the harder you work the more luck comes your way. By consistently taking action one of these free strategies could change your life.